Saint Patrick’s Day is just behind us, with its shamrocks, leprechauns, and green everything. It’s a cheerful time to be Irish or just pretend to be. Nory Ryan’s Song is a novel for young people (and everyone, really) about a much darker time in Irish history. During the Great Famine in the 1800s, the already poor people found themselves starving when the one fail-safe crop—potatoes—failed them.